On Tuesday, March 11, in the auditorium of Los Pinos High School in Quito, Ecuador, more than four hundred people took part in a conference for the hundredth anniversary of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo’s birth.

The event opened with the projection of the documentary “Saxum: Memories of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo.” Following this Archbishop Antonio Arregui of Guayaquil gave an address on Bishop Del Portillo and the Second Vatican Council. “The Holy See,” Archbishop Arregui said, “realized very quickly the intellectual caliber of this priest, which is why they asked him to serve on several committees preparing for Vatican II and later to take part as a peritus. His love for the priesthood was shown in overseeing the effort to prepare the decree Presbyterorum ordinis.”

Archbishop Arregui spoke of the first successor to St. Josemaría as an “instrument of the Holy Spirit” in ensuring that essential aspects related to the sanctification of ordinary life were taken up by the Conciliar magisterium. His talk also included personal anecdotes and memories.

The conference given by the Archbishop of Guayaquil was followed by five testimonies from people who had a chance to get to know the venerable Alvaro del Portillo. Finally an interview was projected featuring Fr. Javier Medina Bayo, author of a recent biography of Don Alvaro entitled Alvaro del Portillo: Un hombre fiel.